NEW YORK — If Rick Pitino had as much influence with the NCAA Selection Committee as he appears to have with Big East Commissioner John Marinatto, Seton Hall would be headed to its first NCAA Tournament since 2006.
“I think Seton Hall’s worthy to get in,” Pitino said after Louisville dealt a severe blow to the Pirates’ Dance chances by handing them a 61-55 loss in the second round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
“I think Seton Hall’s terrific and they’ve had a very good year,” added Pitino, whose team advanced to face No. 2 Marquette in Thursday’s 7 p.m. quarterfinal.
Pitino, of course, advocated early for Marinatto to add both Memphis and Temple to the Big East and now — poof! — both schools are joining the fold.
But his support of his former pupil, Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard, won’t matter if the Selection Committee deems the Pirates (20-12) unworthy despite their RPI of 54.
ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi moved Seton Hall among his first four out after the loss.
“I say this joking around,” Pitino said before Lunardi moved the Pirates out. “This guy Joe Lunardi has no agenda….So just follow him because his batting average is incredible.”
And Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com told SNY.tv of Seton Hall’s chances, “Not good. They might miss.”
Seton Hall senior point guard Jordan Theodore, who finished with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 6 turnovers, appeared emotional at the post-game press conference but said he wouldn’t sweat it out too much during the four days leading into Selection Sunday
“No,” he said. “I’m just going to get in the gym, get better and just pray. That’s all we can do. That’s all I’m going to do is just get better. I’m not going to watch TV. I’m just going to get better, go to school and life my life.”
History says this: 147 of 152 20-win Big East teams have made the tournament.
But the Pirates didn’t help their cause down the stretch.
After a 15-2 start that landed the Pirates at No. 24 in the national rankings, they closed the season by losing 10 of their final 15 games.
They lost three of their last four, including a bad 28-point loss at DePaul last Saturday that really hurt.
Still, Willard, in Year 2 of his tenure, believes his team deserves to dance.
“Yeah, I believe this team deserves to be playing and its name called on Sunday,” he said. “Again, I’ve always been under the belief that it’s the total year, it’s not just two games that you played bad maybe at the end of the year or a tough stretch. Our total résumé is as good as anyone’s out there.”
Two years ago, during the last year of the Bobby Gonzalez regime, Seton Hall needed a win in this same game to potentially make the NCAAs.
Instead, they lost to Notre Dame and went to the NIT instead.
Theodore has long maintained that he didn’t want that same fate this year, and talked down the stretch about how he literally dreamed of playing in the NCAA Tournament.
For the moment, he and his teammates appear to have come up short.
“It’s really tough,” Theodore said. “For me and Herb [Pope] at the end of our Seton Hall career, especially just leaving it up to the selection committee on Sunday, we wanted to go out there and just prove a point, and we came up short tonight, so it’s a tough one.”
Now they must sweat it out until Sunday.
FREE THROWS
Peyton Siva paced the Cardinals (23-9) with 14 points, Kyle Kuric added 13 and former New York schoolboy star Russ Smith had 11. Pope and Fuquan Edwin added 11 apiece for the Pirates…Marquette coach Buzz Williams sat courtside scouting the game.
Photo: Daily News
